Summary

The chapter opens on Wang Lung's marriage day. It is a moment of great change in the house, previously inhabited only by Wang Lung and his elderly father. Today, a woman will arrive and take over many of the chores that Wang Lung has been performing daily since his mother passed away six years ago.

In preparation for the big day, Wang Lung gives his father water with tea leaves in the morning, an action that the old man sees as wasteful since tea leaves are like gold for humble farmers like them. Wang Lung also takes a full-bodied bath, another luxury, since water is very valuable to them. Nevertheless, he justifies this waste by later throwing the water over the earth and their crops.

Wang Lung has invited family and friends tonight for his marriage dinner. He thus goes to town to buy meat and produce. He counts every silver piece and pence. He then decides to have his head freshly shaven for tonight.

The time comes for him to request his bride at the Great House of Hwang. He is terribly anxious, however, and decides to eat something before going forth. When he arrives at the gate of the Great House he is greeted by the gateman, a very unpleasant man that requires Wang Lung to give him a piece of silver before he is shown into the house.

Wang Lung is taken to see the Old Mistress, a very intimidating figure. The Mistress speaks of O-lan, his soon to be wife. She is described as plain but hard-working, presumably also a virgin, though in Great Houses the masters often had their way with the slaves. Regardless, O-lan's lack of beauty has prevented the masters from taking any interest in her. She is also described as slow. The Old Mistress states her desire to see their firstborn and then swiftly hands O-lan over to Wang Lung. In a moment she passes from one master to another, no questions asked.

Wang Lung notices with disappointment that his wife's feet are not bound and that her face is indeed as plain as was rumored. However, she has no pockmarks or a split lip, as he had requested, and he finds comfort in this reassurance. On their way home, O-lan walks behind Wang Lung, as tradition dictates. He buys her green peaches on the way. They then stop by the temple and burn incense for the gods.

When they arrive at home O-lan is soon put to work in the kitchen. She prepares a delicious meal, but does not want to serve the food because she does not wish that other men look upon her.

That night, Wang Lung and O-lan consummate their marriage.

Analysis

In this first chapter we are introduced to the farmer Wang Lung, the protagonist of the book. Wang Lung is a simple man; however, he has a desire for some of the finer things in life, for example, a pretty wife. He is anxious about meeting his new wife, and is very conscious of his appearance. For this reason he bathes his full body, wears his best robe, and has his head freshly shaven for the occasion.

Wang Lung's father notices all of his son's preparations and admonishes him on his apparent waste. However, he is also secretly pleased at the event that is taking place, and he enjoys drinking his tea, as well as the thought of having guests for dinner.

Many of the themes that will be developed by the author throughout the text are presented in this chapter, beginning with the importance of the earth. Obviously, a farmer's life and livelihood depends upon cultivating his land, but the earth takes on a greater significance as well with regard to traditions. Wang Lung works his fields in long-established ways; farming is thus a sort of through-line for Wang Lung to his most distant ancestors. Buck even mentions a connection between farming one's land and worshipping household gods. The implication is that one's traditions and spiritual guides affect one's success as a farmer along with meteorological factors.

Wang Lung's journey to the town establishes the differences between the conservatism of country life and the changing fashions and methods of the city. This contrast becomes evident in his encounter with the Barber, a joker who pokes fun at Wang Lung's braid. All farmers once wore braids, and Wang Lung is unwilling to cut his off simply because a Barber teases him about it. Times are changing, but Wang Lung still apparently values tradition above all else.

Going to the House of Hwang is especially nerve-wracking for Wang Lung. He is awkwardly ignorant of the customs of the house, is intimidated by the pomp and finery on display there, and is especially embarrassed that he has carted his market-bought food to the great House. Once inside, however, he is fixated on his new wife. He has never seen her before. It should be noted at this point that Wang Lung always refers to O-lan as his woman. She is, above all, a possession for Wang Lung, someone to take over the chores of the household and to bear him children.

On their way home, Wang Lung buys O-lan green peaches, possessions she eagerly guards and which attest to the scarcity she is coming from. O-lan is submissive and obedient from the very moment she steps into Wang Lung's house. The green peaches might represent the newness of their relationship -- not yet ripe. At any rate, the peaches suggest sensuality, and prefigure the consumation of their marriage at the chapter's end.

Summary

The next morning Wang Lung feels that he has fully possessed O-lan and thinks of her as: "the woman who was now wholly his own." (25) Further, he finds her body beautiful -- large but strong. He begins to wonder if she likes him, and chastises himself for this foolish thought. However, when O-lan brings him water with tea leaves in it in the morning he sees this gesture as confirmation of her approval of him and is happy.

Wang Lung appreciates all the work O-lan performs around the house, especially given that he once performed her duties himself. Wang Lung is now freed to expend all of his energy in working the fields. O-lan is very resourceful -- she gathers fuel for the fire and fertilizer for the fields without being asked -- yet she hardly speaks a word.

One day, after finishing her household chores, O-lan joins Wang Lung in the fields. He is pleased to have her there, and they work in unison. After a day's work, O-lan then tells Wang Lung that she is with child, news that leaves him ecstatic.

O-lan does not want any help during childbirth, however, and is especially offended at the thought of having someone from the House of Hwang to help her. She has a detailed image of how she will present her firstborn to the Old Mistress, and Wang Lung gives her money to buy the fabric needed for new clothes. Her careful anticipation of the ceremony surprises Wang Lung, who surrenders the silver without pain for the first time in his life. O-lan holds the money in awe; she has never felt silver in her hand before.

The morning that she goes into labor, O-lan works the fields as before, only slower due to the pains. Wang Lung becomes annoyed at her slowness. O-lan returns to the house, prepares dinner, and then goes to her room and gives birth to a healthy baby boy, all on her own. The news of a boy child overjoys Wang Lung, who rushes into town to get eggs and sugar to celebrate.

Everyone in town congratulates Wang Lung on having a first-born son. He rejoices at his good fortune. However, he soon grows wary: "It did not do in this life to be too fortunate" (40). He thus decides to buy some incense for the gods, to ensure his well-being and that of his family.

O-lan's life returns to its previous rhythm quickly, except that now she must take her child with her and feed it whenever it is hungry. As she works in the fields with Wang Lung there is a parallel drawn between herself and the child and the earth: "The woman and the child were as brown as the soil and they say there like figures made of earth. There was dust upon the woman's hair and upon the child's soft black head" (41). Their first-born is a happy child, good natured and fat.

With the advent of winter Wang Lung and his family find themselves better stocked than ever before. There is more than they need around the house, and even some extra money. The money, something only Wang Lung and O-lan know about, is hidden inside the earthen wall of their room.

The New Year brings many preparations, especially in terms of traditions that shall ensure the coming of good fortune. Due to the good year they have had, Wang Lung is able to go into town and buy ingredients for O-lan to make moon cakes, fancy cakes traditionally eaten at the New Year by those who can afford them. Wang Lung is proud of the fact that his woman is the only one in the village capable of making such cakes. However, the more elaborate cakes are not for them to eat; as O-lan says: "We are not rich enough to eat white sugar and lard" (47). These she will take to the House of Hwang as an offering when she brings forth her son. Wang Lung is again impressed by his wife and is pleased to see the progress they have made economically. They are now in a position to go to the Great House bearing gifts.

Going to the Great House of Hwang is an event for Wang Lung and O-lan. There is a vast difference between their past poverty and their present prosperity. The once-insolent gateman treats Wang Lung with great respect. After her meeting with the Old Mistress, O-lan tells Wang Lung that the year has been economically hard on the House. O-lan herself was better dressed than the slaves in the house. Wang Lung is overjoyed at this, but is then scared of his good fortune. He says out loud: "What a pity our child is a female whom no one would want and covered with smallpox as well!" (51) This he says to appease the gods and show his humility.

O-lan continues to speak of the money spent in the Great House, on concubines, and opium, and gold, and riches. Wang Lung is transfixed by this luxurious lifestyle. But when he hears that they are considering selling land he finally understands: "Then indeed are they growing poor. Land is one's flesh and blood" (52). He stubbornly insists upon buying the land, even if it is far away from his fields. Finally, though, she consents and they decide to buy it.

Buying the land is something that changes Wang Lung. It is not as ceremonious as he would have liked, for he did not talk to the Great Lord himself, but rather to his agent. Nevertheless, Wang Lung is proud of his purchase, and vows to continue buying more and more land.

The advent of winter is a hard time for a peasant, and Wang Lung and O-lan work hard everyday. Also, O-lan is pregnant again. This time Wang Lung's reaction is not wholly positive because he fears that in her pregnant state O-lan will not be able to work in the field with him. However, she says that only the first time is difficult and up until the day of the birth she works in the fields beside Wang Lung. Indeed, after giving birth to the second child she goes out and works. Wang Lung feels the desire to tell her to rest but the exhaustion of his own body "made him cruel" (57) and instead he only asks whether the child is male or female. O-lan says it is another boy and Wang Lung is pleased: "Sons every year; the house was full of good fortune - this woman brought him nothing but good fortune." (57) Also, Wang Lung begins to be recognized as wealthy man, and there is talk of making him the head of the village.

Analysis

These chapters speak to the growing relationship between Wang Lung and O-lan. Though O-lan rarely speaks, she shows admirable resourcefulness and forethought whenever she acts. She also works constantly; she is never idle and never complains. Moreover, she works in the fields as well as the house, whereas Wang Lung works only in the house. She even wins her husband's trust with the silver, coiming up with the idea to hide it in their earthen walls herself. To note that she is going "above and beyond the call of duty" is only fair.

And yet she is minimally rewarded. Wang Lung, though he acknowledges and the end of Chapter Six that O-lan has brought "good fortune" to the house, still thinks of her as "only a woman." He chastises himself whenever he thinks about her diligence because after all a woman does not deserve much thought. Even when she gives birth, Wang Lung thinks only of the child's gender, and not of her health: " 'Is it a man?' he cried importunately, forgetting the woman" (37). The low status of women, especially working-class women like O-lan, is pointedly evident, and the reader cannot help but feel such disrespect is unjust. O-lan is the silent backbone of Wang Lung's growing success. She is almost too perfect, giving birth between stints in the fields and directing her every thought to Wang Lung's fortune.

O-lan does begin to show some thought for herself, and to hint at her story, when she prepares to show her first-born child to the Old Mistress. Her adament refusal to accept help from the great House during her childbirth suggests that she was treated very badly during her time there. Wang Lung, though he might not fully recognize her worth, represents an escape from the nightmarish slavery she experienced at the house. She seems to take pride in displaying her first-born swathed in fine clothes, and is sure to point out the many clues that the great House's fortunes have declined even as Wang Lung and she have thrived.

Meanwhile, Buck emphasizes the extent to which Wang Lung's good fortune follows from the land. The cycle of the seasons informs their every decision and happiness. Indeed, Buck represents O-lan as a microcosm of the land. She, like the earth, is fertile and easy in these first chapters. She gives prosperously and without complaint. She and her sons are even explicitly linked with the "brown" soil. O-lan does not merely work the land, she is the good earth, and her strength -- and thus her family's strength -- follows from the health of the fields.

More broadly, these chapters illustrate class differences and the importance that is placed on status by rich and poor alike. Even food separates rich from poor, and, as O-lan says, the poor are not fit to eat the food of the rich. However, it is clear that things have gone well for Wang Lung and O-lan, and people who had formerly scoffed at them, like the gatekeeper at the Great House, now respect them. This good fortune fills Wang Lung with pride but also with fear. Fear of retribution from the gods is a constant in the novel, and Wang Lung's comment about his son (referring to him as a pockmarked girl, as though nothing could be worse) speaks to this fear.

As the section ends, the marks of ambition that will characterize Wang Lung throughout the novel grow evident -- if O-lan represents quiet perseverence, Wang Lung represents the allure of status. As much as he wishes to have more land, and thus increase his potential prosperity, Wang Lung wishes just as much to be seen as an important man, and he considers the Old Lord's failure to conduct the sale directly with him to be a great disappointment indeed.

Summary

Wang Lung's uncle, a lazy man with seven children, notes Wang Lung's prosperity and insists that his nephew share the wealth. This uncle is a disgrace -- his daughters even run around unchaperoned and "talk to men," which renders them more or less unmarriageable. However, as his elder, the uncle has a claim on Wang Lung, so Wang reluctantly parts with food and even silver.

O-lan, meanwhile, gives birth to a girl, a "slave." Wang Lung perceives this to be an evil omen; the problem with his uncle began because of a girl (his uncle's lazy wife), and now one has been born into his house. He does not even take the time to go look at the new born child.

The misfortune continues as a drought afflicts the village; the crops wilt and die. Wang Lung desperately tries to work the land, but all of his work is worthless without rain. He tries to give water from their well to the crops, until O-lan tells him that if he continues to do this the family will have no water for themselves. To this Wang Lung responds that if the plants starve they will all starve: "It was true that all their lives depended upon the earth" (68). That year Wang Lung sells his grain early, and as soon as he has money he goes back to the Great House -- which continues to suffer decline -- to buy more of their land. Wang Lung gets more land than he did the first time. Furthermore, this time he buys the land without consulting anyone, not even O-Lan.

Winter threatens and the family braces itself for hard times. We get a glimpse into O-lan's past life when she says that they can eat the corn husks instead of using them for fuel. According to her: "It is better than grass" (70). Worst of all, however, O-lan is once again pregnant. She convinces Wang Lung that they must eat the ox, even slaughtering the beast when Wang Lung proves unwilling to do so himself.

In these hard times, Wang Lung finally denies his uncle assistance, which leads the uncle to spread rumors of Wang Lung's riches and greediness. This rumor catches and one night the men of the village sack Wang Lung's house and steal his remaining food. O-lan comes to the rescue and explains that they are starving too. The village men leave, ashamed but hungry: "They were not evil men, except when they starved" (74). Meanwhile, Wang Lung congratulates himself on having spent all his silver on buying the Great House's land, for the money would have been stolen otherwise.

In Chapter Nine, conditions are as bad as they've ever been, and even Wang Lung openly curses the gods. The family hardly works and the children are growing thin; the girl child, who used to clamor night and day for food is now eerily quiet. Wang Lung's father, as the elder, receives the first share of whatever food there is.

Wang Lung's neighbor, Ching, tells the family that a group have men have turned cannibal in their starvation, and Wang Lung's uncle is among these. Wang Lung, horrified, decides to head south, but O-lan must give birth first. Wang Lung asks Ching for food so that O-lan doesn't die during childbirth, and because Ching was among those who sacked Wang Lung's house he reluctantly spares his last beans. Wang Lung gives most of them to O-lan and the rest to his newborn daughter; watching her eat he feels himself fed.

O-lan gives birth to a baby girl and kills the child in its first moment of life. Wang Lung and O-lan do not discuss the matter, though Wang Lung heard the baby cry and knew it was born alive. He buries the dead child, noting two dark bruises on its neck.

The next day, Wang Lung's uncle (looking suspiciously plump) arrives at Wang Lung's door with men who are willing to buy his land. Wang Lung asks how much they are willing to offer and rejects their low price. He decides to sell his furniture instead to finance their journey south, while holding on to his land.

Analysis

Wang Lung's lazy, greedy uncle hampers his rise in status: "it angered him that as he saw himself and his sons rising into a landed family, this shiftless brood of his cousins should be running loose, bearing the same name as his own" (61). We see that as he grows prosperous, Wang Lung grows attached to his wealth and reputation. He knows, as does the reader, that his uncle's excuse -- that "fortune" has arbitrarily smiled on Wang and frowned on him -- is nonsense. Wang Lung and O-lan worked hard for their portion. At the same time there is a tacit acceptance of tradition in this chapter, for Wang Lung recognizes that his uncle is, above all, his blood and his elder, thus he is compelled to help him even though he doesn't deserve help.

The tendency we've seen already to simultaneously belittle and rely upon women continues in this section. Wang Lung thinks of women as trouble, citing his female cousin and his third child, a girl (and thus a "slave"). At the same time, Wang Lung's good fortune follows from his hard-working wife; even his uncle says so. To complicate this contradiction, the women in the novel confirm the shame of being a female; O-lan herself says of their third child, "It is only a slave this time -- not worth mentioning" (65).

The famine in this section emphasizes the tenuous position of a farmer -- even a relatively successful farmer like Wang Lung. Society itself threatens to fall apart in the face of such widespread hunger, and so it becomes more important than ever to show discipline and resolve. O-lan, again, captures the instinct to survive. She more or less saves her family on several occassions, first by persuading Wang Lung to slaughter his ox. Wang Lung is a sentimental man, attached to the symbols of the old ways, like the ox. O-lan, by contrast, is sharply practical. She sees the ox not as a field companion, but as food. O-lan also stands down the mob when they come to ravage Wang Lung's home. Her life has been harder than Wang Lung's and her experience helps them greatly. Despite all this, her gender still limits the amount of respect she receives.

Perhaps the most difficult passage in this section for the modern reader is O-lan's decision to end her newborn daughter's life. This act captures the gender dynamics of the society in The Good Earth -- it's implied that O-lan would not have killed the newborn if it had been a male child -- as well as the strength and resolve of O-lan. She knows how horrible an additional mouth to feed would be; it might well mean the end of the family. Moreover, she knows that the newborn girl has little to look forward to aside from life as a "slave." Thus, out of compassion and wisdom, she ends a life she can't sustain. As with the ox, Wang Lung is reduced to a passive role, burying the infant and contemplating, in so far as he's able, his wife's striking drive to live.

By the end of this section, Wang Lung's uncle is revealed as more than a simple nuisance. He is a monster, a social parasite. His parasitic function is made alarmingly literal when it's revealed that he cannibalizes others in order to gain an advantage during the famine. The uncle obeys no social code, yet manipulates the code to his advantage. He insists upon extorting money from Wang Lung and even sets the village on them when Wang Lung resists. He is truly the villain of this section, taking advantage of his traditional society and giving nothing back. He doesn't work; he only takes.

Yet through all this despair, the land remains. Again listening to O-lan's infallible advice, Wang Lung relocates south to wait out the famine. When the rain returns, the land will still be there, unfeeling and sturdy, and it will still be his. Indeed, Wang Lung's connection to the land, both sentimental and financial, has literally become his connection to an unchanging past, and to a damaged but persistent hopefulness.

Summary

The family begins their journey south, taking nothing but their bowls, chopsticks and the clothes on their back. Wang Lung carries his father and children part of the way. As they walk through the village they hear the townspeople discuss attacking the rich, like the House of Hwang, who horde their food while the rest of the people starve.

When they pass through the town they run into a great multitude heading south on firewagons. The ever-conservative Wang Lung resists using the wagons, which he has never known of before, but O-lan convinces him to relent. They thus pile into the firewagon.

Once on the firewagon, Wang Lung buys some bread and rice for the family with his meager funds. They have starved for so long that they have to be coaxed to eat. Wang Lung overhears talk of the south in the wagon; he learns that he needs to buy mats to make a refuge and that they should be prepared to beg. Wang Lung would rather work, as he considers begging to be beneath him.

Upon their arrival in the south, the family is disoriented; the southern accent is difficult to understand and the locals either ignore or threaten them. Nevertheless, they finally find the refugee area and O-lan, who has lived in such conditions before, builds them a shelter from mats. They then go to the public kitchens, full of starving people. The family eats; the food has been donated by the rich and none of it can leave the kitchen, for some people have taken rice to feed their animals.

O-lan, who has begged during her childhood, instructs the children on what to say to get money. The children find begging fun until O-lan beats them; when they are chastened she declares them fit to beg.

Meanwhile, Wang Lung works as a rickshaw driver. The work is hard and the pay is very low -- he ends the day with only one penny more than the cost of renting the rickshaw. He comforts himself with thoughts of his land.

When he arrives "home" he sees that the family has made enough money begging to feed themselves for another day. The younger boy will not part with his money; he wants to sleep with it and only lets it go in exchange for food. The old man has not begged. He has done his share of work in this lifetime, and now, as tradition dictates, his children and grandchildren will take care of him.

Analysis

This chapter shows the extent of the hardship suffered by Wang Lung and his family and charts the growing discontent with the rich in China. We've already had a foretaste of power in numbers with the raid on Wang Lung's house; the mob continues to be a powerful force, insisting on food and getting it.

As Wang Lung and his family flees their village, Wang carries his father on his back. This image captures multiple meanings. On the one hand, it illustrates how Wang Lung must actually "carry" his family if it is going to survive. He and O-lan are their family's crutch, and if they fail, then the line will simply end. This image has a second, allegorical significance as well. In Virgil's epic, The Aeneid, Aeneus flees from Troy while it burns with his father on his back. Again, the image captures the way in which each succeeding generation must care for ancestry -- whether in the literal form of a father, or in symbolic terms of gods and traditions. Pearl Buck's willingness to deploy a very Western allusion from the foundational text of Rome in her tale of China displays her own ambidextrous approach to literature. She is a Western woman writing of the East, and she draws freely from both traditions.

Wang Lung, who has always been comfortable (if poor), finds himself cast into the south, a massively different region of China. He cannot speak the language and his family must live in the lowest social circle, begging for food. Wang Lung's refusal to beg illustrates his pride. He could make more money begging, it seems, then he could by pulling a rickshaw around. However, he looks down on begging as women-and-children work. O-lan, due to her tragic past, has no problem overcoming such claims to dignity. We learn that in a past famine year she was sold as a slave by her parents. Indeed, the diligence and wisdom that she has displayed throughout the novel seems explained above all by her past. She has survived the worst of life, and she will survive this too.

Summary

Now that the first pangs of hunger have been satiated, Wang Lung and his family begin to get a feel for the city. For Wang Lung this is especially important, because as a rickshaw driver he needs to know how to get around. Nevertheless, though he knows the routines and habits of his passengers he feels that he does not belong in this place: "He lived in the rich city as alien as a rat in a rich man's house that is fed on scraps thrown away, and hides here and there and is never a part of the real life of the house" (106).

There is also talk of a revolution. Discontent brews among the poor, and there are those that speak to the disgruntled masses. However, Wang Lung does not think that this revolution is for him, for it talks of revolting against the foreigners, and Wang Lung feels very foreign in this city. When he finally sees an American for the first time, however, Wang Lung knows that there are those more foreign than him. A sense of belonging becomes instilled in him when confronted with the physical and cultural difference of these people.

The city has plentiful food and money, but these things are distributed unequally. This contrasts strikingly with the country life that Wang Lung left behind, in which a man eats what his soil and troubles bear. The city also corrupts the poor, who must steal to access to the resources of the rich. Soon Wang Lung's sons become petty thieves. This distresses their father, but does not worry their mother, for she sees it as another form of survival and adaptation. One day the younger son steals a slab of meat from the butcher, and Wang Lung is incensed. He tries to throw the meat away, but O-lan thinks otherwise. Nevertheless, that night he gives his son a sound beating, and dreams of returning to his land, where his sons will not be thieves.

The poor are vital to the city -- they make the food and pull the rickshaws and unload the goods -- but they live like shadows, unacknowledged by those who benefit from their presence. Thus talk of revolt grows. Wang Lung listens to some young revolutionaries and learns that on the other side of the wall that hedges in their refugee area, a Great House stands in all its finery.

Again, Wang Lung longs to return to his simple farmer's life, but he lacks the money to finance their return. He speaks with O-lan, and she suggests that they sell their daughter. O-lan herself was sold so that her parents could return to their land. Wang Lung refuses initially; he has grown attached to his daughter and admires her struggle to survive the famine that nearly killed them all. However, as his desire for the land grows, his resolution to keep his daughter in the family wavers.

There is still strange talk among the poor. Wang Lung hears a cryptic message from one of his neighbors. Times will change soon: "When the rich are too rich there are ways, and when the poor are too poor there are ways" (118).

Analysis

Chapter 12 shows just how different life is in the city in contrast to the country. The difference even compromises Wang Lung's identity itself. He feels foreign in his own country, outside of its politics and its society. Only after coming face to face with an other more "other" than himself -- an American -- does he feel that he can belong.

The contrast between the "haves" and the "have-nots" is sharp in the city, which increases anger and resentment among the poor. This toxic atmosphere, along with the generally corrupting influence of the city on his son's ethics (when they turn to crime), increases Wang Lung's romanticization of the farm. He yearns to go back, so quick to forget the troubles that he has just survived there.

Notice that Wang Lung's disillusionment with the city is often described in terms of language. Of course this is literal on one level -- Wang Lung does not "speak the same language" as those in the south; he cannot understand their dialects and they cannot understand his. On another level, this clash of "languages" is more figurative. Wang Lung does not understand the talk of revolution among the poor. The cryptic forebodings of an uprising to come merely frighten him and fill him with a longing for the simple life he knows and trusts. The mob is stirring, and Wang Lung is not among them.

We see clearly too the commodification of women in this chapter. We learn that O-lan was sold so that her parents could return to their land, and it appears that now the only way Wang Lung and his family might return to their land is by selling their daughter. O-lan is far from eager to do this; she would rather kill the girl than place her in the slavery under which she herself lived for years. But she will do it for Wang Lung, something that attests to her loyalty and commitment for the family. She is much more willing than Wang Lung to sacrifice her scruples and preferences for the family. O-lan has lived a life of sacrifice. Wang Lung, in contrast, wishes to return to comfort and moral clarity in the country (whether real or imagined, one can only guess). He is clearly weaker and more sentimental than O-lan, despite the reputation of his gender.

Summary

With the coming of spring, the poor of the city grow somewhat more comfortable. The men begin to talk to each other at night and Wang Lung learns of their hardships. However, he does not feel that he is one of them, for these men have nothing beyond themselves, but for Wang Lung there is always the land: "Most of these ragged men had nothing beyond what they took in the day's labor and begging, and he was always conscious that he was not truly one of them. He owned land and his land was waiting for him" (121).

The talk of the rich and extravagant lifestyle of those in the Great Houses astounds Wang Lung. He thinks of all the land he would buy if he had even a handful of their jewels. The men laugh at Wang Lung when he says this, however, for they would never work if they were rich, whereas Wang Lung conceives of life in terms of working his fields.

Revolutionary propaganda circulates among the poor men of the city. Wang Lung, who cannot read, takes the flyers nonetheless so that O-lan can use them as stuffing for their shoes. The Americans distribute some flyers as well that feature images of Jesus -- first depicted as Western, then later as Chinese. Wang Lung hears a young man speak of rising up against exploitation of the poor. Wang Lung thinks that this talk does not explain everything, for though he knows that the rich control money he knows that they cannot control the weather, which affects his money as much as the rich do.

The next day while pulling his rickshaw, Wang Lung witnesses several poor men being forced to slave for the army. Wang Lung fears that he will be pressed into service too, and decides to work at the docks at night rather than out in the daylight. The job at the dock pays less than the rickshaw, but at least he is safe. He is once again tempted to sell his daughter, but O-lan tells him to wait a little longer, there is talk that something might happen soon. Wang Lung asks O-lan how life was for her in the Great House, and she says that she was beaten every day. Even the pretty slaves at the Great House were beaten or passed among the lords and then the man servants.

One night the family hears a great clamoring, a sound "like the cracking of heaven" (133). The mob has broken into the Great House. O-lan disappears and Wang Lung gets swallowed by the mob. He finds himself within the innermost chambers of the house. Here he finds a wealthy, fat, half-dressed man hiding. The man begs Wang Lung for his life in exchange for money. Wang Lung takes the money and then demands more. One thought rings through his head: "We go back to the land -- tomorrow we go back to the land!" (137)

Analysis

This chapter marks the beginning of the revolution that will change China irrevocably. At the same time, it also charts Wang Lung's place in the city society. Though he is destitute, Wang Lung feels superior to his fellow poor. His identity is, quite literally, born out of the soil, and he feels that because he owns land he has a future that the other poor men cannot expect. At the same time, his love for the land exceeds his love for his daughter; he just about ready to sell her at this point, regardless of the truths O-lan has told him about life in the Great Houses and the abuse she endured there.

The power of the mob versus the individual is very marked here also. It is the collective force of the people that makes it possible for the great divide between rich and poor to come down. The large gathering of discontented people seems to infect individuals, changing them for the worse. Just as at Wang Lung's farm, when his uncle incited a mob against him, people act out of greed and passion within the chaos of mass-consciousness. The mob also makes its way into Wang Lung. When he is confronted with the rich man willing to exchange his life for gold Wang Lung is like another man: he speaks with a harshness he never knew he had, he who had been unable to kill an ox to feed his starving family. Even such a meek sentimentalist as he is affected.

We are also left to wonder: what happened to O-lan? All that we know is that when the chaos began O-lan disappeared. What she does during this time will become crucial to her role in the novel.

Summary

Wang Lung and his family return to the land. With the gold that he took from the wealthy man Wang Lung buys seed, and on his way he also buys an ox. When they arrive at their village they see that their house has been looted; all the hoes and rakes are gone. Wang Lung, simply happy to be home, is unfazed. The men of the village say that his uncle ransacked his house. Ching adds that bandits have been living there. We learn that Ching's wife has passed away and that he has given his daughter to a soldier. Though a mere shadow, Ching says that if he still had some seed he would plant again. Wang Lung gives him wheat, rice and cabbage seed and says that tomorrow he will plow Ching's field with his ox. Ching begins crying with gratitude and Wang Lung says that he has not forgotten Ching's gift of beans.

Wang Lung is happy to know that his uncle left the region after selling off his daughters. O-lan repairs their house and buys new furniture. They even splurge on a red clay teapot with six matching bowls and mount a paper god of wealth on their wall. The days of scarcity have passed.

Wang Lung's thoughts turn to gods in his temple, who are forgotten and neglected. He thinks: "Thus it is with gods who do evil to men!" (143) Nevertheless, because everything is going so well (he even expects another child), Wang Lung burns some incence for the gods. He reasons, "After all, they have power over earth" (143).

One night, as Wang Lung lies in bed with O-lan he feels something between her breasts. O-lan hides the object at first, before showing Wang Lung a cloth full of jewels. She says that she took them from the Great House in the South. As a former slave, she knew where the rich tend to hide their jewels, and found them in a brick in the wall. Wang Lung says that it's unsafe to keep such wealth; they must buy more land instead. He takes the jewels and O-lan appears to be crushed. She confesses that she would like to keep two of the jewels, the pearls. She will not wear them, only look at them occasionally. Wang Lung, again surprised at O-lan's inner life, consents.

The next day Wang Lung visits the Great House, which is no longer great. The gateman has been fired; the Old Lord himself answers the door and Wang Lung is stumped because he's not socially allowed to do business with him. However, at the word "money" a former slave, Cuckoo, appears. She says that she will sell Wang Lung some land, and Wang Lung is wary of dealing with a woman. In his conversation with Cuckoo he learns that the Old Mistress is dead and the Great House has been ransacked from within. Cuckoo suggests that the demise of the family was inevitable since they had lost touch with the land. Apparently, Cuckoo stayed behind to take advantage of the Old Lord as long as possible. Wang Lung decides to think the situation over and return later, which angers Cuckoo. After verifying her story at the tea shop, Wang Lung returns and gives Cuckoo his jewels in exchange for land.

Unable to work so much work himself, Wang Lung buys out Ching and employs his services. Ching becomes the overseer of Wang Lung's workers, who live in Wang Lung's old house while he moves into a large house with his family. Wang Lung makes his sons work in the fields to keep them from growing lazy, but O-lan's days of such labor are over. O-lan gives birth to twins, a girl and a boy. Wang Lung jokes that she kept the two pearls as a symbol for these twins. Meanwhile, Wang Lung's land yields seven abundant harvests, enough to ensure that they never have to leave their land in times of famine, draught or flood.

As Wang Lung grows rich, his shortcomings begin to bother him. He is ashamed of his illiteracy and sends his older son to school so that he can serve as a scribe for his father. His son, who always desired to go to school, is overjoyed, and his younger son insists upon being sent as well. He is very proud of this fact. At school, his sons become known as Nung En (the eldest) and Nung Wen (the younger), with "Nung" signifying that their weath comes from the earth.

The eighth year brings flood, and though hunger abounds, Wang Lung lives off of his warehouses and debtors. He grows idle and bored. With so much time on his hands, Wang Lung assesses O-lan and sees her as dull and common, with no trace of beauty or grace. O-lan flinches under his criticisms and tells him that she has been ill since giving birth to the twins. Wang Lung ignores her, caring only for her appearance. O-lan says that she will bind her daughter's feet and fears him. Wang Lung knows that his wealth directly followed from the jewels she took, but he rationalizes this away, saying that O-lan took the jewels out of instinct, not craftiness. He also feels that her pearls are wasted on her.

Wang Lung gives up his customary tea shop for a richer establishment where, though he is teased for his farming heritage, he feels more high class. At this tea shop he runs into Cuckoo, who tries to sell him on the prostitutes who work there. Wang Lung scans their pictures on the walls (he had always believed before that the pictures were of "dream women") and chooses a very small and delicate girl who looks like a flower. Wang Lung's conscience gets the best of him and he leaves before seeing the girl.

However, Wang Lung's idleness continues, and so a few days later he puts on his best robe and goes into the city. O-lan says nothing. Cuckoo insults him as "only a farmer" when he enters but agrees to bring Wang Lung a girl when he shows his money. Wang Lung chooses Lotus. He enters the girls' chamber just in time to overhear a girl laughing at his "garlic" smell.

Lotus is everything O-lan is not -- beautiful, small, delicate -- and Wang Lung falls for her like a sandbag. He grows obsessed with her and sees her constantly. Meanwhile he grows distant from his family. Lotus asks Wang Lung to cut his braid off and he does so. O-lan is horrified. She says: "You have cut your life!" (183) Wang Lung stops eating garlic, starts bathing daily and visits a rich tailor. As O-lan reminds him, he looks like the young lords of the Great House. Wang Lung takes this for a compliment.

Wang Lung also gives Lotus all she asks for. He even takes O-lan's pearls and gives them to Lotus. This devestates O-lan, who had planned to set the pearls as earrings and give them to their daughter on her wedding day. Wang Lung jokes that pearls are for fair women, not brown women like her and her daughter.

Analysis

These chapters track Wang Lung's change from poor to rich -- and his attendant change in personality. The family's city spoils have left them primed to experience plenty such as they had never known before. At first, Wang Lung's integrity and love for the land are intact. The red tea pot, though the first "pleasure" purchase of his life, is nevertheless clay -- a substance of the earth. It seems to capture the way he cherishes the earth's abundance. Similarly, Wang Lung returns to his ancestral gods, even though they abandoned his family, because he knows their power over the earth.

As his store increases, Wang Lung's expenses and concerns drift from things of the earth to things of the "world," one might say. Though he has so much, he grows obsessed by the things he doesn't have -- a beautiful woman, silk suits, a city coiffure, literacy, etc. Though he can address some of these problems, sending his sons to school so that they can act as his scribes, he is constantly trying to catch up to his own image of affluence. Like the lords of the Great House, Wang Lung is very quickly growing out-of-touch with the good earth. This doesn't bode well.

Many forebodings of Wang Lung's coming potential difficulties are sprinkled throughout these chapters. Cuckoo's influence over the Old Lord, for instance, seems like a future possibility for Wang Lung, who has fallen under the influence of Lotus. She draws him away from his roots, enticing him to the tea room world of excess, sensuality and free-spending. Both Cuckoo and Lotus are expert manipulators of men; they work through beauty and flattery to ensure their own positions of power. Men like the Old Lord and Wang Lung seem easily duped by the dream of possessing such beautiful women.

Buck, by the way, is careful not to condemn the craftiness of Cuckoo; she, like anyone, is fighting to survive in a harsh climate. If she is unforgiving, well, so is O-lan, and so is nature. The low status of women, who are little better than (and often literally are) slaves, leads them to ensure power in unscrupulous ways -- but who could blame them?

The parallel between Wang Lung and the lords of the Great House suggests a more significant cultural current. The old ways in China are passing -- one no longer must be born an aristocrat to enjoy the pleasures of wealth. Farmers and merchants can become rich too, and can fall victim to the same disconnect from the land that undid their former masters. Similarly, Cuckoo, a former concubine, is able to negotiate her way into a position of enormous authority. During a time of revolution, social roles grow fluid, and dramatic rises and falls in status occur. Wang Lung is riding a wave of change that is much bigger than he knows, though in the process he is carried away from the one thing that is constant: the land.

In addition to these historical factors, Wang Lung's change is also contingent upon the fickleness of weather. If it weren't for the flood, Wang Lung would have continued to work the land, thus he would have remained untempted by the luxaries that consume idle minds. He would never have visited the rich men's tea room, never have seen Lotus, and never have turned his back on his family's ways. The implication is that even if Wang Lung acts with unforgivable shortsightedness, it's not really him. Wang Lung is, by birth and trade, a dutiful, hard-working, gentle, honest man. He saves Ching from starvation out of gratitude; he provides generously for his family and friends. However, Wang Lung is also weak (and perhaps a bit stupid). He is not clear-sighted enough to see the importance of maintaining contact with the land despite his success, and he is unable to resist the temptations that come with idleness.

The most tragic victim of Wang Lung's change is, of course, O-lan. Without her hardness, pragmatism, hard work and shrewd thinking, Wang Lung would be no better off than Ching. Instead, she has put him in a position to rival her former masters, the great lords. Rather than match her insight, however, Wang Lung rationalizes away her importance in his rise in prestige. The reader, of course, will know this to be absolutely unjust. However brown her skin, however big her feet, O-lan is as constant and cruel and giving as the earth, and without her Wang Lung is little better than a child. (She is constantly symbolized in parallel terms with the earth, giving abundantly of twins during the good harvests and falling ill during the bad.) Wang Lung's inability to understand her rich inner life -- and his loss of connection with her in favor of the fair, pristine, useless-in-the-fields Lotus -- reinforces his drift from the things that matter, the things of the earth.

Summary

Wang Lung's uncle returns, disrupting his obsession with Lotus. The uncle hasn't changed a bit and insists upon moving in with his now-wealthy nephew and taking the whole family with him. Wang Lung is irate, but accepts his social duty, a decision that O-lan echoes.

His uncle's wife notices Wang Lung's affected behavior and maliciously tells O-lan that her husband is courting another woman. Wang Lung overhears her suggest to O-lan that he will buy Lotus and keep her at the house: a possibility that hadn't occurred to Wang Lung independantly but that he likes. He asks his aunt to buy Lotus from Cuckoo at any price.

O-lan dreads Lotus' arrival while Wang Lung builds a new court adjacent to his house for his mistress. He enlists his aunt's help in decorating the house as he is ashamed to face O-lan. Wang Lung grows irritated with his wife and snaps at her to comb her hair; O-lan cries and says, "I have borne you sons -- I have borne you sons -- " (194) Wang Lung momentarily sees how unreasonable he has become.

Wang Lung pays the exorbitant price for Lotus -- as well as a fee to his aunt -- and she arrives with Cuckoo. Wang Lung shakes off the feeling that he is bringing trouble into his house when he sees Lotus in all her beauty. His aunt criticizes her at first, hinting that Lotus is not as young as she looks (and that the reason she accepted Wang Lung's offer is because she is getting old). Wang Lung is furious at these insinuations and forces his aunt to retract her statements.

O-lan keeps away from the house while Lotus moves in. When O-lan returns she acts as though nothing has changed, does her chores and goes to sleep alone. Wang Lung, on the other hand, has an entirely new set of priorities. He spends all the time he can in Lotus' inner courts, basking in her beauty. Cuckoo also moves into the inner courts to keep Lotus company.

Wang Lung had expected O-lan to clash with Lotus, but instead O-lan clashes with Cuckoo, whom she openly despises. Wang Lung had forgotten that O-lan was once a slave in the Great House where Cuckoo was a concubine. Cuckoo acts civilly toward O-lan but she will have none of it: O-lan refuses even to allow Cuckoo warm water, saying that if her mother were living she would leave for her mother's house rather than bear this humiliation. Wang Lung feels ashamed of hurting O-lan, but feels that his behavior is well within his rights as a man. At one point Cuckoo enters the kitchen to fetch water for Lotus, and Wang Lung violently shakes O-lan when she withholds warm water.

Circumventing this conflict, Wang Lung builds another kitchen for Lotus. However, Cuckoo immediately begins preparing exotic and rich foods for which she charges Wang Lung. Wang Lung's aunt, who loves such food, joins the women in the courts; their friendship puts Wang Lung ill at ease, but Lotus convinces him to allow it. Lotus' insistence on always having her way wears on Wang Lung, who loves her less and less, though he cannot discuss his changed feelings with anyone.

Exacerbating the situation further, Wang Lung's father wanders into the inner courts and slanders Lotus, calling her a harlot. Wang Lung attempts to defend Lotus, but his father replies, "I had one woman and my father has one woman and we farmed the land" (208). He continues to torment Lotus, putting Wang Lung in the awkward position of trying to appease both his mistress and his father.

One day Wang Lung's twins and his older daughter -- his "poor fool" whose starvation during infancy has left her mentally impaired -- wander into the inner courts to see Lotus despite their father's order to stay away. The sight of Wang Lung's eldest daughter horrifies Lotus, who says, "I will not stay in this house if that one comes near me, and I was not told that I should have accursed idiots to endure and if I had known it I would have never come - filthy children of yours!" (209) Wang Lung snaps back that he will not have his children insulted, especially his eldest daughter. He buys his daughter sweets to make her smile and stays away from Lotus for two days. When he finally returns she fawns over him; however, Wang Lung's love for Lotus is seriously compromised.

Finally the summer ends and the water recedes. Wang Lung feels the call of the land once again, a call deeper than anything he feels otherwise. He goes to work on the land.

Analysis

The arrival of Wang Lung's uncle shifts the plot significantly. For one thing, we notice how affluent Wang Lung has become. In the past, he could hardly afford to give his uncle a handful of corn; now he can support his uncle in comfort without too much annoyance. For another, we see that despite his fling with Lotus Wang Lung's devotion to his elders remains strong. Further, Wang Lung's aunt begins to play a major role, pushing Wang Lung into a more decadent lifestyle. She gives him the idea to buy Lotus, she relishes the rich foods that Cuckoo prepares (and then charges up the nose for!). Indeed, one might begin to wonder whether Wang Lung's uncle didn't have a point all along -- he married a wife who gives rather than takes. The contrast with O-lan couldn't be more stark.

Speaking of O-lan, these chapters show her growing more and more miserable. Wang Lung neglects her, criticizes her, and even physically shakes her, but she will not budge in her pride nor in her convictions. She sees that Wang Lung is weak, but his weakness does not implicate her; she remains strong and proud. On occasion, she pointedly reminds Wang Lung of how ungrateful he is to her -- such as when she reminds him that she has borne him sons, or when she rebukes him for giving Lotus her pearls. But for the most part, O-lan suffers through Wang Lung's self-indulgence as she has always suffered through everything, quietly and patiently.

There is one exception, of course. Cuckoo and she have some history. They were both slaves in the House of Hwang, though Cuckoo was of higher status than O-lan and behaved in a haughty and cruel way toward her. O-lan will never return to that past life of disgrace and servitude -- she makes it clear that Cuckoo will receive no respect at her house, even at the cost of offending or abandoning her husband. Again, O-lan has strong, unwavering principles. At the beginning of the novel she seemed submissive and invisible. However, with each chapter we notice her resilient strength. She has always had her convictions, it seems, and even Wang Lung, her ostensible master, can do nothing to shake them.

This leaves Wang Lung in a bind. In general, he is torn in these chapters between opposing urges -- on the one hand, to take what he feels to be rightly his as a rich man, and on the other, to feel shame at hurting the mother of his children and his father due to his lust. Wang Lung struggles between indulging in his patriarchal privileges and fighting off the sting of his conscience. The fact that his father does not respect Lotus -- or Wang Lung's right to a second woman -- brings the struggle to a head, for Wang Lung still feels honor-bound to his elders. Lotus begins to lose power.

She speeds up this loss of power when she lashes out at Wang Lung's daughter and twins. Finally Wang Lung sees the absurdity of bringing such a needy, stuck-up woman onto his farm. As though she, who has given him no children, has any right to insult his flesh and blood! Although Wang Lung still returns to Lotus, her allure is fading fast.

When the water recedes at the end of this section, Wang Lung's speedy return to his old priorities reminds us that his whole episode with Lotus is really quite artificial. He was drawn into his tryst by idleness -- not because he doesn't want to work the land anymore, but because he couldn't. Indeed, after the decline of Wang Lung in the past few chapters we're relieved to see that his good portion remains intact. He will still defend his family from slander, respect his father's experience, and work the land happily when he can.

Summary

Working all day on the land, Wang Lung finally shakes his love sickness. Lotus is horrified to see Wang Lung revert to his farmer identity, but Wang Lung is overjoyed: "Now you see that your lord is but a farmer and you a farmer's wife!" (213) Wang Lung stops washing daily, browns his skin in the sun, hardens his hands, and returns to garlic and bread, even while Lotus complains. She has no power over him now.

After the harvest, Wang Lung sells his grain when the price is highest, taking his eldest son to manage the contracts and negotiations. He feels pride at his well-mannered and intelligent sons. Wang Lung plans to find his eldest son a good wife and consults Ching, despite his feeling that Ching is too "simple" to be much help in the matter.

The elder son suddenly grows moody and petulant, losing interest in school. When he refuses to attend classes, Wang Lung grows angry and beats him. O-lan steps in, taking many of the blows herself, and states that the son simply needs a slave. She has seen such moody behavior in the young lords of the Great House. Wang Lung, though secretly proud that he has raised a son who can indulge in melancholy, announces that he will not buy his son a slave but rather find him a wife.

Wang Lung consults Lotus about finding a wife for his eldest son, and Lotus answers that she knew a man who used to come to the tea house who said he has a daughter who resembles her. Lotus says that he is a grain merchant, and that if Wang Lung so desires Cuckoo could serve as a matchmaker. But Wang Lung wants more time to think about it before he makes any decisions.

Wang Lung's elder son comes home intoxicated one day, and he forces his younger son to tell where he has been. He learns that his son has been on a three-day bender with his cousin, and that they've been seeing the local village prostitute. Wang Lung searches out this woman, Yang, and offers to pay her twice her rate to refuse his son each time he comes to her. She agrees. When Wang Lung returns he tells Cuckoo to arrange for his eldest son's marriage to the daughter of Liu, the grain merchant. She does so, scheduling the marriage to take place in three years, as the girl is only fourteen years old. Wang Lung dreads enduring his son's moodiness for three more years.

As for his uncle, Wang Lung threatens to throw him and his family out of his house due to his son's rampant corruption. His uncle remains quiet, then shows Wang Lung a red beard and a length of red cloth. These are the signs of the Redbeards, a band of robbers that have been terrorizing people in the area. Wang Lung realizes that his property has been spared not due to the favor of the gods, but because his uncle is one of the bandits. There is nothing he can do to his uncle now; he can merely appease him. Wang Lung goes out of his way to make his uncle's family feel at home.

Wang Lung once again turns to the land to calm his mind. The only one of his children that continually brings him uncomplicated joy is his poor fool, his eldest daughter. However, even the land holds problems, as a plague of locusts is rumored to be coming. Most of the villagers despair at the news; Wang Lung, however, decides to fight the locusts, and he, his men, and some more local farmers go out and set fire to some of the fields. Although the locusts devour some of Wang Lung's fields, many are saved. Later, many of the people of the village eat the locusts, but Wang Lung cannot. He sees them only as destroyers of his crops.

Soon after, Wang Lung's eldest son comes to him and asks to go south to a boarding school so he can continue learning. Wang Lung says no; in his eyes his son already knows more than enough. Also, Wang Lung has grown jealous of his son's delicate and fine features: "one would have said he was his son's servant rather than his father" (236). He tells his son that he should work the land and prove that he is a man. Lotus soon approaches Wang Lung on his son's behalf, but Wang Lung does not budge. After a few days the eldest son seems content enough, and although he does not go to school he stays in his room and reads, something that Wang Lung does not oppose.

Soon, Wang Lung has restored his stash of silver gained back Lotus' price. He is also "proud to own her" (238) and, with her life of luxury and leisure her beauty has been augmented as her features have become softer and more rounded. For O-lan, however, things have not been going as well. She looks tired and gaunt, and she continues to say that she has "fire in her vitals." However, she works as hard as ever and does not complain.

One night, O-lan approaches Wang Lung with terrible news. She tells him that his eldest son has been visiting Lotus in the inner courts when he is gone. Wang Lung does not believe her, but O-lan says he can confirm it by coming back from the fields earlier than expected one day. Later that night Lotus refuses his company and he begins to wonder. He returns from the fields unexpected the next day and finds his son talking with Lotus. Enraged, Wang Lung beats them both and exiles his son, telling him to go south and never return until he is asked.

Analysis

As his prestige increases, Wang Lung's relationship with the land becomes at once complicated and simple. It has a calming effect on him -- when he works the land, grows brown, eats garlic and smells of the earth, he is happy. He knows his vocation: he is a farmer. In this way, the earth is an entity of simple pleasures and tasks, of repetition and innovation. Indeed, Wang Lung emerges as a very sharp farmer indeed when he avoids falling victim to the swarm of locusts. At the same time, his ties to the land complicate his home life. Lotus despises his farmer's ways, though she cannot choose but submit to him. Similarly, Wang Lung's son has been trained as a scholar -- he lacks his father's native affinity for the land. Buck further complicates these rifts between Wang Lung the farmer and Wang Lung the rich man because Wang Lung's riches are due in great part to his diligence in the fields. If he had never been such a good farmer, he would never be such a rich man.

Wang Lung's two seperate halfs, the hard-worker and the man of indulgence, are illustrated in his two women. O-lan, the mother of his children who even resembles the plain, strong earth, captures Wang Lung's farmer half. Lotus shows his weakness for the gentler things in life, the refined ways of the city. Wang Lung is proud of his ability to juggle these two women -- and the two halves of his persona that they represent. He especially enjoys the way that the locals respect him for keeping two wives. But this state is unstable, as we see repeatedly, and though Wang Lung may escape to the fields from time to time, he can't sustain his contradictory interests indefinitely.

These two broad themes, the country Wang Lung and the city Wang Lung, manifest in nearly every moment of this section. Wang Lung's relationship with his son, for instance, captures the mix of pride and shame he feels at his family's newfound luxary. His son is not a man of the soil -- he is soft, white and elegant, whereas Wang Lung looks like a peasant. Wang Lung is proud of his son's erudition, and even secretly thrilled that his son has a rich boy's privilege to be moody and melancholic. But his son does not balance these tendencies the way that Wang Lung does. He doesn't have a drive to work that off-sets this self-indulgence. Is there any wonder that Lotus, who has only known indulgent ways, feels more comfortable with the son than with the garlic-breathed father?

The son's decline into drunkenness and prostitution thus represents a generational change that seems inevitable if Wang Lung's success continues. His sons will never develop the work ethic that he inherited from his ancestors (notice that even the ancestral gods have receded in this section, taken-for-granted rather than honored). They live more like the spoiled lords of the Great House.

In case you have any doubt where such lives of plenty ultimately lead, Buck is sure to house the village prostitute, Yang, inside the Old Lord's manor. The decadence that she represents has always dwelt at the heart of that manor; only now is it so obvious and so ugly. Wang Lung's son -- and Lotus, for that matter -- both manifest the ugliness that comes with such a cushy, degenerate lifestyle, only with the veneer of youth and beauty still covering them. Meanwhile, the son's association with his incorrigible cousin and uncle (who is revealed to be a Red Beard, thus proving the villainous nature that we've suspected from the start) and Lotus' association with Wang Lung's lazy aunt drive their parallels home even further.

Wang Lung continually escapes from these growing problems by engaging the earth. His victorious battle with the locusts resonates with many themes in the novel so far. We have seen human mobs; the locusts are an insect mob, just as rapacious and unthinking as their human counterpart. However, whereas the Great Houses capitulated wholly to the mob, Wang Lung is still crafty enough -- still connected enough with the land -- to fight off the locusts. His victory raises the question of whether his sons would have been able to save the fields, and the answer is obvious. They would have been lost, just as the lords were lost.

However, despite his successes in the fields, Wang Lung suffers the ultimate humiliation at home. His son is "talking to" -- and perhaps even sleeping with -- Lotus! The nightmare of a son replacing a father in his wife's affections is as old as the Oedipus myth, and has been explored in depth by Freud and his progeny. Needless to say, Lotus' preference for Wang Lung's son strikes to the rich man's heart. He feels his age and his common appearance all the stronger, and exiles his son in a rage.

Meanwhile, O-lan continues to suffer and recede. She is still a crucial figure in this section, quietly helping Wang Lung to see Lotus' betrayal, his son's need for a wife, and many other things, yet Wang Lung does not acknowledge her at all. He hasn't given her a thought, really, for years. She continues to suffer from "a fire in [her] vitals," which receives medical attention, even as she continues to work her chores every day without receiving help.

Wang Lung's neglect of O-lan reaches its high point perhaps when he beats her in the course of beating his son. He never apologizes for dealing collateral damage -- indeed, he hardly notices. In contrast, when he accidentally strikes Lotus in the course of beating and exiling his son at the end of the section, he expresses remorse. O-lan has become a specter in her own house -- in the house that she did so much to build. And, as she has been symbolically connected with the earth throughout the book, the reader can rest assured that Wang Lung's neglect of O-lan does not bode well at all.

Summary

With Wang Lung's eldest son gone there is tranquility in the home. Wang Lung's horrible experience with the son inspires him finally to take a look at the rest of his children.

Wang Lung's second son is very different from his elder brother, who is tall and big-boned like his mother. The younger is slight, yellow-skinned and crafty. He reminds Wang Lung of his own father, so he decides that his younger son would be a good grain merchant and arranges to have him apprenticed with Liu. Liu and Wang Lung get along very well: they respect one another as hard workers who have grown prosperous by their labor. Unofficially, they decide that Wang Lung's youngest daughter will be married to Liu's younger son.

One day Wang Lung notices that his youngest daughter, a pretty girl whose feet have been bound, has been crying. When prodded she responds that her feet are bound very tightly every night by O-lan and it pains her. O-lan has told her that she should never let Wang Lung hear her cry. The daughter says that Wang Lung is "too kind and weak for pain" and would remove the bindings, "and then my husband would not love me as you do not love her" (249). The insight of this comment floors Wang Lung.

Soon the plans for his daughter's betrothal are set. Wang Lung decides to keep his youngest son in the fields because, according to him, having two sons that can read is plenty. Now that things are settled in his family life Wang Lung thinks about O-lan for the first time since he married her.

Wang Lung finally realizes how dismissive he has been of O-lan and how sickly she has become. He orders O-lan to bed and has his daughters take up her chores. He also fetches a doctor, who informs Wang Lung that O-lan is dying. The doctor is greedy and attempts to exact an incredible fee to cure O-lan, but Wang Lung and O-lan both can see that any treatment would be in vain. Wang Lung goes into the kitchen, O-lan's previous domain, and weeps.

O-lan dies slowly. As she stays in bed, Wang Lung realizes how crucial she had always been. Her absence creates confusion in the house for Wang Lung's father and children, who try to help but can't replace O-lan. Wang Lung stays by his wife's side while Ching oversees the harvests. He doesn't even visit Lotus, as thoughts of O-lan make it impossible for him to enjoy his time with her. At one point, seeing O-lan's suffering, Wang Lung says that if he could heal her he would give all his land. At this O-lan smiles and says that she must die, but the land will remain. Resigned to her fate, Wang Lung goes to buy O-lan a coffin. The shopkeeper talks him into buying two for a discount price, one for his father as well. O-lan is happy to hear that her husband has taken the time to prepare for her death.

As she dies, O-lan has nightmares. She speaks of her horrible time in the Great House. Wang Lung hears her with a complicated mix of pity and disgust -- she is a gruesome sight, and yet the mother of his children. One day O-lan requests that Cuckoo be brought to her room, and tells of how the Old Lord always considered Cuckoo beautiful and herself ugly. However, she says, O-lan, is now a successful man's wife and the mother of three sons, whereas Cuckoo is still a slave. Her insult enrages Cuckoo, but Wang Lung calms her by saying that O-lan is ill.

O-lan asks that her daughter-in-law, Liu's daughter, be brought to the house so that she can know her before she dies. The young woman appears obedient and correct in all she does, which pleases Wang Lung. Then O-lan asks that her eldest son come home to be married, after which she will die in peace. The son arrives and Cuckoo makes all the arrangements for the wedding feast. Upon seeing his son, now a man, Wang Lung forgets his past conflict and his heart swells with pride.

The day of the wedding, Wang Lung's aunt, Cuckoo and Lotus prepare the young maid for the ceremony. Wang Lung sees that his son is pleased with his choice of bride. They are wed and O-lan is happy. She tells her daughter-in-law that she must take care of her new husband, father and grandfather, and that she has no duty to anyone else in the house. Then, she falls into a fitful sleep and speaks again of her ugliness and her loyalty before dying.

Wang Lung cannot bear to be near O-lan's dead body, so his aunt prepares the body for burial. Soon after, Wang Lung's father also dies, so the two are buried together with much ado on a good piece of land that Wang Lung has picked out for a family plot. After the burial Wang Lung wishes that he had never taken the two pearls away from O-lan and cannot bear to see Lotus wear them. He says: "There in that land of mine is buried the first good half of my life and more. It is as though half of me were buried thee, and now it is a different life in my house" (269).

Analysis

Finally, after being absent and ignored for the greater part of the book, O-lan receives some recognition. Indeed, these chapters find Wang Lung reflecting on all of the members of his family. Between his hard-work in the fields and his dissapation with Lotus, Wang Lung has hardly had any time to know his own flesh and blood. The enormity of his neglect is the theme of this portion of the novel.

It takes his daughter's simple comment, in which she reveals that O-lan knows how little Wang Lung loves and appreciates her, to snap him out of his solipsistic obsession with status and beauty. He realizes that his neglect has left O-lan, to whom he owes everything, on the verge of death, and though he tries, he can do nothing to save her. His money and status and land cannot buy her life back.

Compounded with the death of Wang Lung's father, O-lan's death takes away the person in Wang Lung's household who is most thematically connected with the earth. Wang Lung seems to understand this connection intuitively when he states that he would give up his land to keep O-lan alive. She is his land in several important ways -- she provided the financial means and the work ethic necessary to accrue property and, on another level, she produced three sons and three daughters herself. O-lan, like the fields, has been ignored, neglected and taken-for-granted, yet she has been steady and strong and bountiful and Wang Lung finally realizes how much he owes her.

At the same time, Wang Lung does not feel that he was wrong to buy Lotus. As a man, such a purchase was warranted. However, he deeply regrets showing his wife disrespect during his long infatuation with the beautiful concubine. He should have honored her hard work and motherhood rather than ignore her. Especially painful is the memory of the pearls that she had asked for. This was O-lan's only significant request in the whole book, and that Wang Lung disregarded it is especially damning. He can no longer look upon Lotus and her pearls without recalling the happiness that he snuffed out of O-lan.

Yet Buck paints O-lan as more than a symbol of the earth and a foil for her husband. She has the richest inner-life of any character in the novel, a fact that grows evident in her harrowing nightmares before dying. O-lan has internalized the insults of her "betters" -- she knows that she is not beautiful and the thought that such a factor, which she has no control over, so affected her relationship with Wang Lung. At the same time, O-lan is fiercely proud of the things she has been able to control: her work-ethic and her uncomplaining motherhood. These factors, which seem on the surface to be more evidence of her submission to Wang Lung's dominion, are revealed to be sources of strength, agency and individualism for O-lan.

O-lan has done more than anyone else in the book to exhibit the giving qualities of the earth: constancy, fortitude, patience and self-reliance. And now she, like Wang Lung's father, has been given over to the earth. She will become a part of the earth again, which is only fitting, even as it means that Wang Lung has grown farther from the earth than ever.

Summary

With his son married and his dead buried, Wang Lung consults Ching about the status of his land. Ching tells Wang Lung that the floods are once again upon them, at which news Wang Lung curses the gods. Ching tells him to be careful with blasphemy. Meanwhile, the village is woefully unprepared for the coming flood, as the official who was supposed to fix the dyke instead spent the money on his house. When the villagers arrive at his door he kills himself.

The flood eliminates two harvest years and famine returns to the land. Wang Lung has silver and gold stashed around his house, but this is not safe, as his uncle is part of the wild Red Beards gang that roams the area. Wang Lung knows he will have to pay for their protection. Meanwhile, his eldest son is wary of his cousin, who has been checking out his wife. He suggests that they kill the uncle's family. Wang Lung, who has always been gentle and soft-hearted, knows that he cannot kill. His son's second suggestion, that they palliate the uncle's family with opium, is more to his liking. After the uncle's son attempts to rape Wang Lung's second daughter, Wang Lung agrees to buy the opium. He sends his daughter to Liu's house to protect her virginity.

Wang Lung's uncle and his wife and his son soon indulge in the opium and peace reigns in the house once more. Wang Lung forbids anyone else in his house to touch the drug. There is soon good news in the household as well: Wang Lung will be a grandfather.

Summer arrives and those displaced by the famine return. Wang Lung loans them money at high interest, with their land as security. He also buys up much land. Other villagers offer to sell Wang Lung their daughters. Wang Lung buys five slaves to help with the household and the coming baby. One day a man comes with his daughter, and though Wang Lung finds her too small and weak he buys her because Lotus fancies her.

Wang Lung works hard on his land all summer, taking his third son along with him. He begins to wonder if he should relax more now, as he is no longer young and he has many men who work his fields for him. But while his fields thrive, Wang Lung's house continues to attract trouble. Wang Lung's lecherous nephew continues to eye his eldest son's wife as well as his servants. Wang Lung tells his son not to guard his wife too jealously, "as though she were a harlot" (286). Nevertheless, Wang Lung's eldest son wishes to move into the city. Wang Lung retorts that he will never leave the land, and the son says that they could buy the inner courts of the House of Hwang and live there. Wang Lung finds this idea attractive -- he enjoys the thought of living in such luxary and he wishes to keep his noisome nephew from ever reproducing -- and so consults with his second son.

The second son has grown up and thrives in the grain business. He agrees to move into town, and notes that then he could become married and live with his father. Wang Lung realizes that he has neglected his second son, who is a fine businessman, and agrees to find him a suitable wife. The second son's taste is nothing like his brother's: he wants a careful and frugal manager of his household.

Wang Lung goes to the Great House to buy it, and the old wife of the old gateman shows him the inner courts. They are filled with the poor, whom Wang Lung now feels revulsion for. Wang Lung decides that he will have this house.

Analysis

The second famine in the book provides a clear contrast, charting Wang Lung's rise to power. Where he was once at the mercy of nature, now even the famine brings him the chance to grow stronger. He lends money, buys land, and acquires slaves. He is no longer one of them, but a great man.

However, Wang Lung must deal with more trouble at home. With his son's help, he neatly dispatches of the problem of his uncle's family -- he will keep them in an opium-induced stupor for the rest of their days. When even opium is not enough to quell the lust of his rotten nephew, Wang Lung agrees to move away. Wang Lung, though he has neglected his sons somewhat, shows himself capable of cooperating with them and acceptig their counsel, which speaks well for the future.

Wang Lung's second son emerges in this section as a coherent compliment to his first. Whereas the elder son is a scholar, fond of city ways and his delicate wife, the younger son is shrewd and practical. He has thrived in his business and wishes to have a wife more like his mother than Lotus. Thus each son expresses a half of Wang Lung -- his eldest captures his ambition for beautiful things, his younger captures his business-sense and work ethic. Neither son, however, seems to show Wang Lung's tender-hearted nature.

Wang Lung is well on his way to a total change. He was once a poor farmer cringing at the House of Hwan for a homely wife. Now he will own the Great House and rule over a vast farming operation. He has slaves, servants, gold and silver. Indeed, Wang Lung has almost forgotten his past poverty. He looks upon the poor with discomfort, as a stinky swarm to be tolerated or exploited. Indeed, as connected to the land as Wang Lung feels himself to be, he is disconnected from its people.

Even though O-lan is gone, note how her wise presence abides. For instance, the money in the walls of Wang Lung's house reflects back on her initial decision to hide their silver. Even as Wang Lung grows ever richer and haughtier, the lessons of O-lan seem to protect him.

Summary

Wang Lung's sons quickly complete their move to the House of Hwang. Wang Lung, however, finds it hard to leave his land. He declares that he'll move once he's found his second son a suitable wife but before his first grandson is born. Aside from Wang Lung, only his uncle, aunt and nephew continue to live at the country home. The uncle and aunt rapidly deteriorate under the strain of their opium addiction.

Ching finds a village maiden who seems suitable for Wang Lung's second son. Her father, a good man who is happy to become affiliated with Wang Lung through marriage, soon settles the deal. Wang Lung looks forward to marrying his third son and washing his hands of the whole matchmaking business.

Wang Lung, knowing his and Ching's age, rents some of his land to other farmers. His peace increases even further when his nephew announces a desire to join an army and head to war in the north. Wang Lung gladly provides the money his nephew asks for. Once the nephew leaves, Wang Lung moves into the House of Hwang. Proud of his new Great House and his growing family, Wang Lung furnishes the place lushly. Also, he begins to eat delicate foods and affect the manner of rich men. Cuckoo compares him to the Old Lord and this pleases him.

The time comes for his eldest son's wife to give birth. She requires much ado and emits loud screams of pain. Wang Lung visits his family gods for the first time in many years and prays for a healthy grandson. His prayer is apparently granted, as the child is a boy. Wang Lung is happy, but he remember how differently O-lan behaved during labor. There was no commotion and O-lan was soon back to work following the birth. His eldest son's wife won't even nurse her own child, as that is unbecoming for a wealthy woman. With the coming of the third generation, the eldest son suggests that they commission a tablet of ancestry, such as the great families have, and Wang Lung happily agrees.

Happiness is short lived though, as Wang Lung receives word that Ching's has been gravely injured. Wang Lung rushes to his fields and leans that Ching hurt himself demonstrating an arduous task for a young worker. Wang Lung beats the incompetant laborer in his grief. He then promises Ching an expensive coffin just before Ching dies. Wang Lung weeps more copiously than he did for his own father. He buries him almost as family and asks to be buried closest to Ching when he dies. He then takes his youngest son to the Great House, since Ching can no longer apprentice him in the ways of the earth.

Wang Lung's eldest son then approaches his father and asks to rent the outer rooms of the House of Hwang as well, as it isn't fitting that they live among the poor people who dwell there. Wang Lung reluctantly agrees and the poor are evicted. These commoners know that the elder son has forced them out, and they vow to "come back even as the poor do come back when the rich are too rich" (308). His son eagerly makes the arrangements to renovate the House as he sees fit. Wang Lung, once called "Wang the Farmer," becomes known as "Wang The Big Man" or "Wang The Rich Man." Soon Wang Lung's the second son shares his anxiety that so much money is going to waste in the house. He sees the expenses as following from his elder brother's pride, so Wang Lung cuts off the funds.

The eldest son comes to speak on his youngest brother's behalf, saying that the youth would rather be educated than work in the fields. This surprises Wang Lung, who had assumed that his youngest would dedicate himself to the land. Wang Lung speaks to his youngest son, a quiet, beautiful lad with a serious disposition. He confirms that the son does not wish to work the land and he orders him to go away. Wang Lung feels used and betrayed by his sons. None of them will dedicate themselves to that which has given them all they have: the earth. He muses that daughters are better than sons because they leave with marriage, and of course his poor fool asks for nothing but a piece of cloth to entertain herself with. In the end Wang Lung lets his sons have their way and the youngest son begins receiving tutelage.

Wang Lung's second son plans his wedding, frugally noting the expenses and guest list. His thrift greatly angers his elder brother, and the contrast between his frugality and his brother's excess grows stark. Nevertheless, the days are filled with happiness for Wang Lung as he enjoys his grandchildren. Soon his second son has a child as well and the third generation populates the Great House.

Wang Lung's uncle's falls ill, so Wang Lung buys a coffin for him and for his wife. His aunt extracts a promise from Wang Lung that if she were to die before her son returns from war he would find his nephew a wife. Wang Lung agrees. Soon after his uncle dies. The family mourns and the uncle's wife moves into the town house. There she will wait out the rest if her days.

In Chapter 31, war enters the area. Wang Lung has never experienced war before. Soon soldiers are everywhere and Wang Lung's nephew is among them. The nephew forces Wang Lung to house soldiers. Wang Lung and his sons hide the women and children in the innermost courts of the House, but they cannot prevent the nephew from entering these rooms and lusting after the women. The eldest brother's wife squirms under his gaze, but the second brother's wife meets his stare and laughs. The nephew comments on Lotus' great size and says that she looks like a rich man's wife. The nephew briefly sees his mother, who wastes in an opium daze, and refuses to smoke with her.

Cuckoo suggests that they could control the nephew by giving him a slave. The nephew requests Pear Blossom, the small delicate slave girl that serves Lotus. Pear Blossom resists but Lotus demands that she submit. Wang Lung, however, pities the girl and instead gives his nephew another slave, a stout woman of about twenty years old who volunteers for the job. Soon after, the soldiers receive orders and leave. By this time, the nephew's slave is pregnant.

Analysis

Wang Lung's separation from the land clearly marks the close of that chapter of his life. He transitions gradually but inexorably from a farmer to a rich man, and spends less and less time in the fields even as he yearns for them. Wang Lung again manages ambivalence about his two halves -- he appreciates his eldest son's fine taste and expensive plans even as he appreciates his second son's business head. Moreover, he despairs that none of his sons will take over the farming, though that is the source of their wealth and comfort. Wang Lung, a good man despite his flaws, will at least think about the land, while his sons likely will not. This bodes ill, which we know well when the commoners whom Wang Lung's eldest son evicts promise to return some day.

The death of Ching seals the separation with the land. He was Wang Lung's last link to the daily activity of the fields. Now he is completely disconnected, even taking his youngest son with him to town. Thus, Wang Lung leaves the land and those buried in it, his father, O-lan and Ching, as markers of his past life. He is no longer "Wang Lung the Farmer," but rather "Wang Lung the Rich Man."

The birth of Wang Lung's grandson also clearly marks the shift from country to town life. The cries of the mother fill the Great House, whereas O-lan always bore her labor in silence. Wang Lung endures her commotion silently, remarking on O-lan's fortitude. He seems very willing to take the bad things of town life -- the loss of strength and connection to the earth -- along with the good -- the increase in status and honor. His grandson's will never know the poverty and want that his sons have known. They will grow up spoiled in the Great House and will likely never touch a plow. Still, Wang Lung is happy at the sight of them, as they prove his success.

The death of the uncle also marks the end of an era. The uncle has always stood for the unproductive traits in Wang Lung's blood -- the excess, the impulse to debauchery. He was a villainous man but still he is mourned, as an elder should be. Unfortunately for Wang Lung, his uncle's presence does not end with his death. His son continues the tradition of mooching and immorality with aplomb, and leaves behind a child for others to raise. Whereas Wang Lung (and hopefully his sons) tend their crops, whether in the form of wheat or children, Wang Lung's uncle's line leaves their crops to be tended by others. They are, as noted before, unmitigated parasites.

Following O-lan's death, it seems that the sharply individualized woman has left the book. Women are seen in this section almost solely from the point-of-view of the men. This is clearest when Wang Lung's nephew hastily passes judgement on the eldest son's town wife and the second son's country wife. These two seem to represent opposite, obvious types of women -- the gentle, shy town woman and the loud, brazen country woman. They lack the subtlety of O-lan's or even Cuckoo's character.

The section further emphasizes womens' status as belongings when Wang Lung grants his nephew a slave. Cuckoo and Lotus both prove pragmatic when they urge a slave on the nephew, who is otherwise capable of threatening any woman in the house. Both of these women know men's urges better then men themselves, and are well-versed in the compromises necessary to keep male violence in check. In order to protect women as a whole, slave women must satisfy the lust of lechers like the nephew, and slave women themselves (like Cuckoo, Lotus and the woman who volunteers to be the nephew's concubine) know this. Meanwhile, certain fragile, feminine characters like Pear Blossom have the innocense crushed out of them. The ever-sympathetic Wang Lung saves Pear Blossom from the nasty fate of being the nephew's slave, but without a benevolent patriarch she would have to submit. This is yet another hint of how difficult life will likely become following Wang Lung's death.

Summary

Wang Lung and his sons agree to eliminate all evidence that the soldiers were ever stationed at their house. Meanwhile, Wang Lung's nephew's slave gives birth to a girl. Wang Lung treats the slave and her child respectfully, assigning her to care for his aunt until her death. He gives the slave a private room and even some silver, but the slave requests that the silver be used as a dowry; she desires a trustworthy poor man as a husband and Wang Lung agrees to marry her off after his aunt dies. This promise recalls O-lan, for he was once such a man as this servant now seeks.

Wang Lung's aunt soon dies, and Wang Lung summons the country fellow whom he beat for Ching's death. The man happily accepts the nephew's slave as his wife. When the man arrives to claim his bride, Wang Lung sits on the raised dias, just as the Old Mistress sat so many years before when Wang Lung came for O-lan. At this Wang Lung feels that his life "was rounded off and he had done all that he said he would do in this life and more than he could ever have dreamed he could, and he did not know himself how it had all come about" (332). Wang Lung is now sixty-five years old.

However, household peace continues to elude Wang Lung. The wives of his sons harbor a deep hatred for each other, and this strains the brothers' already tense relationship. Further, ever since Wang Lung spared Pear Blossom from her fate Lotus has been jealous of the girl. At first the tought of desiring Pear Blossom strikes Wang Lung as ludicrous, but the suggestion catches his fancy and he begins to notice how pretty Pear Blossom has become.

Wang Lung's youngest son, having become enamored of the army during the soldiers' stay, announces that he wishes to become a soldier. He wants to be a part of the revolution that is coming and that will free the land. Wang Lung resists, saying there is no need to free the land -- it's already free, as his rise to power proves. The son insists and Wang Lung is at a loss. He suggests that the boy be married instead, which angers his son.

Wang Lung then asks whether he desires a household slave and the son replies that Pear Blossom is the only desirable slave. Wang Lung grows jealous at this and says that no such conduct will take place in his house. Trying to clear his head, Wang Lung feels the draw of the earth. He is ashamed to return to the fields, as he is now a rich man and not a farmer. He reasons that his youngest son is fitting for Pear Blossom, as they are similar in age, but cannot shake off his desire for the girl.

That night Wang Lung calls Pear Blossom to him. She throws herself at Wang Lung's feet upon entering his presence. Although Wang Lung tells her that he is but an old man and that she deserves someone her age, Pear Blossom insists that she prefers an old man, as the young are violent. Thus she becomes Wang Lung's concubine. His relationship with her, built more around companionship than sex, is very comfortable.

Wang Lung's relationship with Pear Blossom becomes known. Cuckoo remarks that Wang Lung is very much like the Old Lord. Lotus is not happy with the news, but relaxes when Wang Lung buys her jewels to atone for his wandering. His sons are incredulous -- the eldest is even a little jealous, as his own wife is controlling. But his youngest son has the strongest reaction, storming out of the house never to return.

In the final chapter of the novel, Wang Lung finally finds peace in the company of Pear Blossom and his poor fool. He trusts Pear Blossom deeply, and asks her to kill his poor fool when he is dead, for he knows that no one in the house will care for her. Pear Blossom replies that she will care for the girl as a reward for the great kindness that Wang Lung has always shown her. Pear Blossom says that she hates all men except for Wang Lung, even her father, and that all young men are evil.

Lotus and Cuckoo spend much time together as good friends, and Cuckoo is established as Wang Lung's primary line of information about the happenings of the house. His elder sons prosper, becomming important business figures and giving him nineteen grandchildren or more. His youngest son becomes a military official for the revolution, though Wang Lung remains oblivious to any such changes, and his eldest takes a concubine.

During the spring Wang Lung returns to his land. He occasionally sleeps in his old house and visits the family graves. Wang Lung asks his sons to buy him a coffin, then moves into the old earthen house with Pear Blossom and his eldest daughter, leaving "the house in town to the family he had founded" (355). Back in the earthen home, Wang Lung lives the simple life that his aged father had lived, concentrating on food, drink and earth, nothing more. His sons come often to visit him, but they are busy living their own lives.

One day Wang Lung overhears his sons speaking of selling the land to the new railroad that is set to come into town. Wang Lung angrily declares, "Out of the land we came and into it we must go -- and if you will hold your land you can live -- no one can rob you of land" (357). The sons soothe the old man with promises that they'll never sell the land. However, "over the old man's head they looked at the other and smiled" (357).

Analysis

The final chapters show Wang Lung growing apart from the rich family he has founded. Even as he seeks peace and comfort, his sons grow business-like and feud with one another. Their lives of luxary and increase are not for Wang Lung, nor is Wang Lung's preferred simplicity for them.

The crowning gesture of Wang Lung's life, the symbol of his rise in status, comes when he gives a wife to a poor farmer. Indeed his life has come full circle, and the fact that he chooses to sit exactly where the Old Mistress sat when she spoke to him attests to his awareness of the the neat arch of his life. This is a moment of deep reflection for Wang Lung; he has accomplished more than he could have dreamed.

The moment also suggests how dependant Wang Lung's success has always been on women. He even sits where the Old Mistress sat -- the first woman who ever gave him anything. Of course, she gave him O-lan, and O-lan gave him his start as a wealthy man. In nearly everything, Wang Lung has followed the advice of women, for better and worse both. He allowed Cuckoo to intoxicate him with the promise of Lotus; he gleaned the suggestion to buy Lotus from his aunt; he allowed Lotus to change him from a farmer to a luxuriant city type.

Even at the end of his life, Wang Lung is still victim to women's power of suggestion, which is plainly evident when Lotus' jealousy of Pear Blossom inspires Wang Lung to begin loving the young girl. Wang Lung has done little on his own but work hard; he has always followed women for inspiration, though he has conceived of himself as their master and superior.

When Wang Lung takes Pear Blossom as his concubine he greatly resembles an Old Lord. The move surprises everyone but no one resists, for it is his house above anyone else's. Nevertheless, this shows that Wang Lung's family has accepted the hierarchical way of life that marked the House of Hwang. Wang Lung's youngest son's reaction is especially strong, as he sees Wang Lung's actions as decadent and unnatural. Indeed, in his son's eyes, Wang Lung evinces the need for a revolution to end the old ways.

However, the interpretations that rule in the House of Hwang -- that Wang Lung is turning into the Old Lord or showing the need to revolt -- aren't very astute. Wang Lung's relationship with Pear Blossom is more complicated than either reading can account for. He is the girl's protector, the only man she doesn't loathe. And she submits to him happily, not out of obedience to hierarchy. Both Pear Blossom and Wang Lung are more antithetical to the society in the House of Hwang than they are representative of it. Pear Blossom despises the commodification of women that reigns there (she is thus the clearest mouthpiece for a modern reader's likely aversion to such practices), and Wang Lung yearns for a connection to the land that his sons and grandsons will never know. Together they are able to escape the strictures of the Great House along with Wang Lung's eldest daughter, whom no one else would care for.

Wang Lung is truly the last of his kind -- and perhaps the only of his kind. His rise to power depends on a specific historical moment in Chinese history, a moment in which a farmer can gain the status and wealth of an Old Lord while still retaining a connection to the earth. Before Wang Lung, farmers were not able to rise to such heights. After Wang Lung, his sons will deal in a more abstract commercial sphere, and will likely suffer for it. They pay mouth-service to the earth at the end of Wang Lung's life, but smile at each other above the old man's head, knowing that they will embrace the railroad and the modern economy to come. Wang Lung's final warning rings true, however. No matter how harried his life became (and Wang Lung's life has been very hard, ranging from starvation to mob violence to war), the land has been a constant provider. Even if it has failed from time to time, its bounty always returned. Can the same be said for the business ventures of his sons?

The earth will always be the earth. It will always have value as long as people live to work it. The things of the world, however, are fleeting.

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